2010 Yosemite National Park Silver Coin Recommendations

2010 will feature a new series of commemoratives quarters with five rotating reverse designs depicting national parks and national sites. Along with these quarter-dollars the United States Mint will issue duplicate silver versions as part of the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin Program.

The 2010 Yosemite National Park Silver Bullion Coin will complement the third quarter to be released next year. In contrast to the quarter however, the silver version will be much larger — a massive three inches in diameter, or more than twice the size of today’s American Silver Eagle with its 1.598 inch diameter.

Additionally, the silver coins will weigh an incredible five ounces and are to be struck from .999 fine silver. Both the weight and fineness will be edge-incused.

Coin designs have already been created for the 2010 quarters, and therefore also for the silver bullion coins. Four were drawn up by the United States Mint that are emblematic of Yosemite National Park in California. As mandated by the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008, which authorizes the coins, the designs have been submitted to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) for review.

Yosemite National Park Coin Design Candidate CA-03 - Click to Enlarge

Yosemite National Park Coin Design Candidate CA-04 - Click to Enlarge

The CCAC selected the design candidate denoted as "CA-03."

"For the coin portraying Yosemite National Park in California, the Committee prefers design 3, featuring a view of El Capitan," the CCAC reported to Treasury Secretary Geithner. "Members praised the simplicity and ruggedness of the design, and its effective composition."

The CFA selected design candidate "CA-04."

"The Commission recommended alternative #4 depicting the Half Dome rock formation, with the comment that the artwork appears unfinished and should be further developed," CFA Secretary Thomas E. Luebke said in a report to US Mint Director Ed Moy. "The Commission suggested that other historic sources, such as the photographs of Ansel Adams, be considered in refining this image."

The final decision for which design will represent the historic park is up to the Secretary of the Treasury.

America the Beautiful Quarters will feature up to five new designs each year beginning in 2010 and lasting to 2021. The eleven year series will result in companion 56 circulating quarter-dollar and silver bullion coins with reverse designs emblematic of a selected site in each state, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories — Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

For more information on the third quarter-dollar release in 2010, or to view the other two coin design candidates, see Yosemite National Park Quarter.